Titus Kaphar

Race is always an awkward subject at the art museum. Thats a dilemma that 33-year-old African-American artist Titus Kaphar addresses squarely in his paintings. His History in the Making exhibit comes courtesy of the first Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship. During a recent gallery walk-through, the Yale-trained painter explained how he rearranges the narratives in old canvases that contain black faces. After faithfully copying them, he performs investigations into these characters in these paintings by whiting out, cutting out, or repositioning the peripheral African-American figures. In the startling Conclusive, for instance, which dominates the center of the gallery, the fabric from a 17th-century French original by Simon Voet, upright in its frame, lies excised and draped onto the floor in neat silhouette. The work was performance based Kaphar says, when he originally pulled out a ladder and some razor blades and started slicing away while gallery goers watched nervously. This is the first time its been displayed properly, more as a sculpture instead of a two-dimensional object. Nearby, hes performed the same trick on a Thomas Eakins (you can see the original upstairs in the ongoing Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness show.) Im very much inspired by our history, says Kaphar. Then he takes a knife to it. (Closed Mon.) BRIAN MILLER